The Role Of A Guru

Questions & Answers

Gurudev, a few months ago my personal Guru left his physical body. I am not able to bear the grief of his absence and the void because of his departure. How can I console myself and understand that the Guru is not a physical presence, but a Tattva (fundamental all-pervading element or principle in Nature). How do I live without him now and keep my mind at peace?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:

Just relax and meditate. When you meditate more, you will realize that the Guru is a Tattva, the Guru is a light that is ever glowing and eternal. The Guru is not the (physical) body. The Guru is the Divine light that resides within the body; the Guru is love.Whatever you have received from your Guru, you must share it with others. In life, each one of us becomes a Guru for someone or the other. What does being a Guru mean? A Guru desires nothing from you except your well-being and progress on the path. That is the Guru Tattva. You will surely have to play the role of a Guru in someone’s life.

How can we drop the ego?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:

Why do you want to drop the ego? Just keep it aside and do not struggle with it. Often we want to get rid of the ego because it brings pain. But this desire to be free from the ego magnifies the ego even more. Being natural is the simplest way to overcome the ego. Just take it for granted that everyone belongs to you.I have travelled to so many countries, yet wherever I have gone, I have not met one person whom I felt was a stranger for me.

Gurudev, please speak about reincarnation.

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:

Reincarnation definitely exists. Just know this for sure. In Physics it is said that matter and energy can neither be created nor destroyed. The mind and the soul are pure energy, and they manifest again and again in different ways.I have been here many times earlier and you too have been here in earlier lifetimes as well. The difference is that I know this while you are still unaware about it. That’s all. If you meditate more often, you too will have the same experience.

Gurudev, should the youth of the country enter politics?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:

Yes of course, the youth must definitely enter politics. I would encourage this. In The Art of Living, we have started the College for Good Governance in Bhubaneswar. So all those who want to take up politics and work in the field should enrol there. I will ask the Vice-Chancellor of the Sri Sri university to reserve some seats for the youth of Haryana also. I do not want that the youth of any state or region are deprived of good quality education. Some youth from every state should attend the college there. It will help to broaden their thinking and vision for the country.

Gurudev, the mind gets disturbed on listening to the wrong deeds being performed by saints and religious leaders. Please guide us how to handle this.

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:

See, there are thousands of saints and religious leaders in the country. Out of this, if two or three are found to commit wrong deeds, or if they get stuck in wrong thinking, then one should not let their own mind get troubled and become negative because of that. Whoever does something wrong will surely have to repent and pay for it. That is his Karma and he has no choice. But you should not let yourself get stuck in these things. Just take whatever good knowledge and guidance you get from anywhere or anyone.

If someone whom you regarded as a saint does something wrong and falls from such a revered position, then you should feel sympathy and compassion for them. You should not feel hatred for them, because what they did was out of ignorance and wrong knowledge. Just move on ahead.See, Ravana (the demon king of Lanka in Ramayana) also disguised himself as an elderly sage to abduct Devi Sita, isn’t it so? So there must be some people having such a kind of thinking even today. What can one do? If Ravana had not disguised himself as saint then we would not have had the Ramayana today.

See, there are some miscreants in every sphere of society. These few wrongdoers bring dishonour to the entire field because of their wrong deeds.There were a few doctors reported in the news who were stealing kidneys from the patients they operated on and were making a fortune by doing so. But does this mean that you keep thinking about this and become so fearful that you stop visiting doctors altogether? Will you be able to stay healthy?In the same way, there are some shopkeepers who adulterate the food grains and sugar to make profits. They mix adulterants in milk and butter. But if you shut down all the shops because of this, then how will things work in society? If we keep doubting and mistrusting everything that happens in life, then that will not help. When we see some people who do such wrong deeds, we should feel compassion and sympathy for them. You should understand that they have strayed away from the right path.

Sometimes honest and innocent people also get falsely blamed and accused in criminal cases. For example, the Shankaracharya of the Kanchi Mathh was accused wrongly in a criminal case. The legal trials went on for nine years in the courts and after such a long period of 3500 hours, he was finally found to be innocent. But the media covered the news of his release and innocence for eight minutes only. So such unfortunate things do happen to good people, and you should consider it as their penance. You should take a lesson from these things that you should not indulge in wrong acts. Respect everyone, always take the good things about them and imbibe it in life.

All good qualities that you see in the world today come from the divine. And bad qualities or habits come from an ignorance of the divine. When one’s vision gets muddied and blurred due to wrong knowledge and ignorance, then one does such wrong things. So understand this and just relax.

I know there is one more question in the minds of you all here, i.e., whether it is one’s destiny or one’s Karma that plays a part in the lives of people. How many of you here have this question? (Many in the audience raise their hands).Life is a combination of destiny and your self-efforts. I will explain this with a simple example. After a certain age, does your height increase? Whether it is five feet or six feet, once you have attained that height, it does not grow any more. So your height is like your destiny. And your weight is like your self-efforts. Whether you wish to increase your weight by 10 kilos or reduce it by 20 kilos, it is up to you. If you think that you cannot increase or decrease your weight, then that is not the right thinking. You can increase or decrease your weight, and that is the free will you have.Destiny is knowing that you cannot increase your height beyond what it is after a certain age.See, if it is raining outside, then that is destiny. But whether to get wet or not is your choice. It is your self-effort. If you take an umbrella and walk, then you will not get wet in the rain, otherwise you will get drenched. Being on the spiritual path means to enhance both your destiny and the quality of your self-effort.